Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Teacher/Grandma Gifts :: Sharpie Mug Tutorial

It's that time of year, when I'm always looking for a cute teacher gift or stocking stuffer or something to personalize for the grandmas and I think I've found an awesome idea this year. I wanted to share because I know I'm not alone on this hunt! So here's what you need: a plain white mug (ours came from IKEA) and an OIL based Sharpie paint pen (I found this one at Walmart in the craft section).

Draw your designs on your clean, dry mugs with your paint pen. I let Harper do her own designs on these and write the names - cute right? Then let them dry for 24 hours.

Put the mugs right on the rack in the oven and turn the oven on to 400 degrees - you want to let your mugs heat up and cool down WITH the oven. You're basically using your oven as a kiln to cure the paint and any sudden temperature changes could cause the mug to break, and you to cry. So put the mugs in, turn the oven on and set your timer for 40 minutes. This part didn't smell great but running the fan helped clear it out.

After 40 minutes turn off the oven and DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR until the mugs and oven are completely cool. You could leave them overnight if you bake them in the evening, we waited probably 3 hours before opening the oven. That's it! Pretty easy right? And these have been used, washed and run through the dishwasher and they came out completely fine! Add a cute mug rug and some cocoa or chocolate and you have a great teacher gift (or in our case grandma gifts).